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tv   America Live  FOX News  December 17, 2012 10:00am-12:00pm PST

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jenna: how you can help, foxnews.com. we have resources for those that feel move for the community. check out great resources. continue to have a good monday as we watch flag at half-staff across the nation. jon: make begin -- megyn kelly up with america live megyn: welcome, everybody. new information from sandy hook elementary school shooting. we learn more about the administration's plans. beginnings of plans, trying
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to prevent similar incidents in the future. welcome to "america live". i'm megyn kelly. connecticut police are saying two unidentified adults were shot during the rampage on friday. they're now recovering that is potentially beneficial obviously to law enforcement as well as coming as a sigh of relief for their families. the news, coming as the community of newtown begins to mourn, the 26 victims who did not survive on friday t was an emotional memorial ceremony at newtown high school last night. president obama, sitting among the mourners, in the high school, joining community and religious leaders at the service. first though he met privately with each of the families of the victims. what, what an experience that must have been. and you could see, that he was visibly moved when he came out of on the stage and the entire nation has been moved by the events in --
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newtown connecticut, 72 hours ago. sandy hook elementary will remain closed indefinitely, perhaps a month or perhaps permanently as the investigation continues and as they learn more about the gunman, adam lanza, what may have motivated this terrible unspeakable crime. rick leventhal joins us live from newtown with the latest on that investigation. rick? >> reporter: megyn, you may have heard paul vance say there were moving vans, collecting furniture of the classroom other equipment from the school so it can be moved to another school, chalk hill elementary in monroe, connecticut. that is where the sandy hook kids who survived the shooting will attend classes later this week. he mentioned about all the broken hearts in the community and how important it is to conduct the investigation thoroughly and this is last press briefing that we expect to get for some time as they look into motives and what happened here and why.
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police told us they're holding two crime scenes indefinitely and where nancy lanza lived and where she died after he shot her multiple times. sandy hook is still a crime scene that is where six adults and 20 children were killed. they recovered significant evidence from the home that apparently includes one computer and telephones and other electronic evidence they will be searching through. they're interviewing every single witness. that will unfortunately have to include the children from the school who survived the shooting. i asked the lieutenant earlier today about how they would balance that. here is what he told us. >> i don't want to get into details of a very, very, tender, tender issue. i can tell you that any interviews with any children will be done with professional, with parents and with investigators as appropriate. the investigators will determine how, when, where and why we'll do this.
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again, we'll handle that extremely delicately. >> reporter: this morning family and friends of adam lanza are describing him as near genius who had a form of autism known as asperger's. he may have attended sandy hook elementary as a child but was later homeschooled and took college courses at the age of 16 at western connecticut state university. he didn't complete all of courses. the ones he did ended up with a gpa of 3.26. we learned the weapons he used in the shooting on friday did belong to his the mother. we have again also learned that the students who attended that school will, at some point later this week be attending another school as this community, megyn mourns all of those who were lost. two funerals today and more funerals each and every day this week. megyn: rick, when we were on the air together on friday as this was unfolding we're told by law enforcement, the shooter was ryan lanza, the
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actual shooter, adam lanza, 24-year-old brother. the investigators spoke with him. they spoke with the father of these two boys. the parents were divorced. have they been able to offer the police any assistance that is meaningful and have they now been cleared of anything in this investigation? >> reporter: my understanding is they have been cleared. they were also described as very cooperative. they gave investigators insight to the mindset of ad many today lanza. my understanding they were estranged for some time. as you may know, apparently adam was carrying ryan's identification. when he was found in the school that's why they initially thought he might be ryan. that is what sent investigators to ryan's home in hoboken where they found adam's brother who explained the situation and that helped sort of unspool this whole investigation. megyn: the reports are adam lands is a had no -- lanza had no criminal history but was obviously unwell. her mother led to a
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sheltered life of her son. when she was in town she didn't like to talk about her some ad doom. she pulled him out of for homeschooling. these are all the reports we're getting. any insight from the those who knew the boy growing up and what he was like and whether there were red flags so many mental health experts there are in these types of situations? >> reporter: you know we've been told that he was social le awkward. we also heard he was rarely seen. that his mother kept him sheltered inside the home and he rarely left that house. not hearing a lot from people in the community about him. sort of a mystery kid. again, was only apparently at that school for a short time before he was pulled out, sent to another school and homeschooled. there are reports, megyn, his mother was planning to move, to help his, her son attend a college out west, perhaps, in washington state. but, obviously just a terrible, terrible situation.
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megyn: yeah. we'll have much more on the investigation throughout the next two hours because we are learning quite a bit. rick, thank you. as rick just reported we are learning more about what kind of home life adam lanza had and the kind of struggles his family was facing. by all reports the gunman's mother, nancy lanza was the first victim. friends say she was extremely worried about her son particularly in the last couple of years. earlier today fox's own peter doocy spoke to a family friend about the relationship between adam and his mother. >> reporter: you said there were different things that she tried to do because she had a hard time bonding with him? >> yeah. she was trying to bond, find ways to bond with him and you know, she told me that the guns, you know, she would take them shooting because that was a way that, you know, a single mom could, you know, relate to her son. and so she would take him, take him out shooting. megyn: given what we're learning about adam and his apparent troubles the question becomes, should
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someone have seen this coming? dr. alan lipman, criminal psychologist and executive director for the study of violence is with me now. dr. lipman, we've come to rely on you a lot in these terrible circumstance as someone who can provide insight to the criminal mind. many folks want to believe this is a story about any number of things, gun control, what have you, but at the beginning don't we have to start with what made the shooter want to kill? >> well, let's think about this and it is true again you and i join in a tragic situation and our hearts of course go out to those families in connecticut. everyone of us across the nation. but, look, the fact is, that as we've seen, we saw in aurora, colorado, with holmes, we saw in virginia tech with cho and we saw with loughner in tucson, arizona, in every single one of these cases and u.s. secret service study looked
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at over 20 years of these episodes, before virtually every single one there was undiagnosed or insufficiently treated mental illness. again we see at the prime age, late teens or early 20s, when a person erupts into psychosis, this is what we're seeing again with adam lanza. you just reported, one of your reporters was noting that nancy lanza was having increasing trouble with adam over these last couple years. this is how it works. the person first shows a pattern of abnormal social behavior. that is a key sign of the, preceding signs of schizophrenia. they become more and more difficult. in late teens or early 20s they break into sigh coast kiss. quite likely although we don't know for certain, that is the case as in all of these other shootings that we've seen happened here -- psychosis. megyn: right. >> megyn, it is the case if you have someone as with holmes, as with loughner and
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appears to be the case with lanza, cho, all the way back to columbine, if you have someone filled with rage, filled with delusions, filled with vengance and they can simply lay their hands on something that will allow that vengance to be quickly acted upon rather than delayed, that is a very powerful combination. we, need to begin a national dialogue in which we teach people how to identify the signs of mental illness that we have been so afraid to look at. you know, in everyone of these incidents beforehand i heard over the years since early days at yale, how can this happen? i can't believe this has happened? how can we explain it? we know why. what we need to be able to do is to teach people, parents, educators, citizens, how to identify the signs
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mental illness in their children, and megyn, how to intervene. megyn, this is something we can teach and we can do. megyn: this is the question i have for you. quite frankly, i'm sure you feel the same, i'm sick of you having the conversation. >> me too. enough of it for god's sakes. megyn: you said before long before we knew the name adam lanza,, late teens, early 20s you have the first psychotic break. we've seen it many times. we don't know that's what happened here but clearly -- >> you want to know what the problem is? megyn: the whole country wants to know. >> why we have this conversation again and again? here is what i believe. i've been looking at now for over 20 years. there are two reasons, okay? the first, we as a nation need to understand that mental illness should not be stigmatized and it is not an excuse. these people are responsible for their actions. but if we don't look at that
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cause, if we don't learn to see it, understand it, see the signs, and learn how to intervene, as parents, educators, friends, citizens of this nation, we will see this cycle repeat again and again. we need to look at it, to get over our own discomfort. to identify the signs, and to be able to learn to intervene. and secondly, if we know that we have a child who is violent, who is out of control, who is in fact suffering from these kinds of symptoms, we need to take them to a hospital, to a:i can to a doctor like myself and not leave them in the presence of something. megyn: i have 50 seconds. 60 seconds before hard break. but i have to get this in. is there a place for them in the system? do we commit them? is it just the -- >> is there a place? megyn: place for people who haven't committed a crime but don't necessarily
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warrant commitment? >> megyn, hear is the place. the place is in our own minds. as members of this community to identify the signs so that we can take them to the places where we can give them the treatment that we already have. there is not a lack of available treatments. there is lack of available sight. and we need to, as a nation, make it a national priority to identify the signs of mental illness before happened so that we can prevent these tragedies, prevent this horrific grief in our nation. we know the reasons. we need to open our eyes, learn the signs, and take the actions to intervene. megyn: dr. lipman, we'll see more of you in the coming days because we need to delve deeper. >> i agree. megyn: look for signs to watch out for. thank you for being with us. >> all the best. megyn: up next, one of the first school security experts to speak to the residents of columbine will join us live on the newtown shootings.
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stay with me. >> something that you never really see, you know, all the joint faiths coming together and sharing as one. i thought it was remarkable. in a time of crisis like this, we are one. we are one nation. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've gotine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat.
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u know who would love ur all-you-can-eat-data buffet? big lucy. big lucy! are you hungry? for all the data. [ male announcer ] get the season's hottest smartphones, like the kyocera rise. and get virgin mobile, with unlimited data and messaging included, for just $35 a month. from america's gift headquarters. walmart. megyn: the white house press briefing is expected to begin any morning where we'll learn the administrations plan to come up with ways to prevent what happened in newtown. you can see jay carney taking to the microphones there. we will monitor it for you as they get to news on newtown we'll bring it to you. across the country you saw signs of increased security at schools in the wake of this tragedy in connecticut. for instance, police recruits in million walkee undergoing training over the weekend to deal with tragic situations, similar to friday apartment
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rampage. as kids showed up to school possibly keying armed police officers in front of their school. how far should we go to keep our kids safe? dr. james shaw is a school security, safety and violence expert, a true expert at the chicago school of psychology and author of the book "jack and jill, why they kill" you spoke at the commencement ceremony at columbine high school shortly after the massacre there and you know what you're talking about when it comes to this adolescent side, i mean young, young people in this country, whether it's late teens or early 20s, committing mass murder. back then this is you april 20, 2000 saying, we must require of ourselves that we do more than grieve. what kind of inspiration, motivation or direction do we mead to make us protect our children against violence, including in school? apparently we needed a little more. >> i agree, megyn.
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dr. lipman said a lot of truthful things in his statement. one of the things he said is to look for the signs. i would like to add to that. look for the signs of someone who is getting ready to engage in negative behavior. for example, more and more press stories are saying that the slain shooter, adam lanza had a verbal conflict with school staff the day before the shooting, less than 24 hours before he went off, so to speak. we now sadly know after the fact that we can use verbal disputes as school people, verbal contacts, threats, as a repb t as a reason to deny entry. if you have a verbal dispute with someone you don't let them through into the school. airlines have done that, if someone is acting verbally or
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making threats, he or she cannot get on the plane. megyn: we know he shot his way in the next day maybe you are on a higher alert when an altercation has taken place. maybi definitely want to speak with you. jay carney has just been asked about gun control and whether that will be a new push by the president. >> i think that it's part of it, but it is far from awfu from all of it. as you know the president has taken positions on common-sense measures that he believes should be taken to help address this problem, but he made clear that more needs to be done, that we as a nation have not done enough clearly to fulfill our number one obligation, which is to protect our children. >> one more on this. as you know we've seen these horrific moments come and go, and the debate good gun safety,
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children safety goes witness. does the president think that he needs to capitalize on this and get this conversation going and see some action in the short term, or does he feel like he can get through fiscal cliff, immigration and there is now a mindset and a will to get this done months down the line? >> i don't have a specific timeline for you for what the president will do moving forward. i would simply refer you to his remarks last night when he talked about the action he hoped to take to engage the american people in the coming weeks. i think that what happened at sandy hook elementary school has clearly shocked the entire nation, and has laid bare the necessity of evaluating the various things that we can and
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must do as a nation to try to better protect our children. >> quickly on fiscal cliff, the president said to the business roundtable recently that republicans need to reach what he called a conceptual breakthrough on rates, tax rates going up and once that happens the deal will come together pretty quickly. does he feel he has that now that speaker boehner is talking about rates, as far as in conversation? >> i won't comment on specific reported proposals or counter proposals on internal conversations between the president and the speaker, or the president's team and the speakers team, or with other members of leadership. the president's insistence that rates need to go up on the top 2% was based on an economic reality, which is that in order to achieve a broad deficit
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reduction imagine that puts our economy -- megyn: hr-rbgts yo you heard jay carney echoing what president obama said last night. the president in ella kwepbt remarks in newtown talked about how we are failing our children in this nation, we are failing them when it comes to their safety. and that he's been to too many of these memorial services where innocent victims are being killed, and he didn't speak about gun control, he just talked about how he needed to sit with advisers, with experts and come up with ways that we can improve the situation. many believed he was talking maybe at least in part about an assault weapons ban which has been very much in the news lately but the white house not confirming that right there. a conversation is going to begin in this country and hopefully about many issues, including as we talked about moments ago, what would make swan want to kill in thisomeone want to kill
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in this way in the first place. we had dr. james shaw, his satellite feed went down. we will get him back up. i really do want you to hear from him. it's so hard to find people who are truly experts in this kind of thing, in school security and he's one of them. we got him? let's bring back dr. shaw. welcome back. in terms of recognizing the signs, you know what i mean, most people are regular folks, they see somebody, he's weird, he's odd, he's shy, he keeps to himself. this guy they said he dressed more formally, he held a briefcase in high school. he would push up again the lockers when friends went by, he didn't like to talk to anybody. how do you discern that from shy necessary, awkwardness, asburgers which can be a social impediment for some folks from a would be murderer. >> i would advise everybody not to start labeling, not use terms like asburgers or autism.
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i think that is incorrect, it's wrong, it's offensive, it's like labeling someone who is too short or too tall or left-handed, that kind of thing. i think in the immediate newt we need to start paying attention to potential copy-cats. after columbine there were a spayed of copy-cat-type events on high school campuses around the country. i hope it doesn't happen here, but i think we need to keep our radar up and on, in the event, in the prospect that there is a copy-cat out there wanting to get some kind of prestige, wanting to get some kind of flattery and attention. megyn: we saw it after columbine. dr. ablow was on the program on friday talking about one of the reasons this is very disturbing what happened in newtown, we still believed in the wake of columbine and other incidents that there were certain red lines, even the mentally deranged, even terrorists won't
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cross and the mass murder of six and seven year olds was one of them, we just still believed that. the fear is that now that one person has crossed that red line, whether it's eliminated, whether the red line is gone. dr. shaw, as somebody who does this for a living, what do you say to the school systems out there who now have to worry about copy-cats and the parents out there who are very concerned? >> i think school district, and school superintendents, and boards of education, and school principals need to workday lee, if necessary, with law enforcement to come up with cogent, strategic school safety plans that make sense, that are executable and that are current. i think schools need cameras, high-tech, high capacity cameras in their front offices and outside the front offices, around passageways and hallways. i think schools need to have visitor sign entry logs and exit logs. just because you know a person, because he or she is repeatedly at your desk in the front hofs does not mean you let your guard
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down, does not mean you let them through the electronic game. i am cheered and encouraged by president obama's wanting to help every school district in the nation. i think it would be good for him to look at the former drug and -- safe and drug free schools act which had billions of dollars in past administrations or two. however they were funding things such as magic shows, and dunking tanks at schools. we can do much better than that. megyn: you know, and i -- we'll talk a lot more about autism and asburgers. that reportedly comes from adam lanza's brother to the police saying that he was on the autism spectrum, and we will talk a lot more about waving that means. i mean, you know how many people in that country have a diagnosis of some place on the autism spectrum, and the vast majority have no violent tendencies, and that's an aside according to most of the experts but has become the focus of so many. we will talk about whether that
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is fair and what people really need to look the here. i know it's only been 72 hours. this guy the police say he shot his way in. they had the cameras and the lockdown, the teachers did everything right from the sound of it. how could they have done something differently on friday? >> i don't know, megyn that they could have. i think the teachers, god rest them, i think the teachers did everything they possibly could. they gave their lives. they ran toward the shooter, the principal, and a teacher, another teacher or two ran toward the shooter to block and protect -- block and protect kids behind them and around them. when you've done all that you can do, what was it that you failed to do? i don't know. i think that is an eternal question that we are going to be debating, pondering and talking about for years to come. megyn: when you finished those remarks at the columbine
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graduation after the massacre you said may god save the children, may the nation's victim. dr. shaw, thank you for being here with us. >> thank you for having me. megyn: all the best, sir. we have other stories developing this hour, including there is new fallout on the terror attack on our consulate in benge, libya on 9/11 of this year after secretary of state hillary clinton announces that she will not be able to testify to congress this thursday, because of a concussion she suffered some time last week. fox news contributor monica crowley is with us live right after the break on that. we'll get some other news in today. after last week's prounion protests in michigan, one union leader issues a controversial challenge to the michigan governor that is making quite a few headlines today. plus, as we learn more about the horrific massacre in newtown,
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connecticut and we see the faces of some of the victims, here you see the adults. new stories of heroism are emerging. trace gallagher next with some powerful stories about courage under fire and the people who did everything they could to save as many liv lives as possible. >> we understand the power of prayer is what it is and we know we can intercede for people. we don't have to be here we can be right here and make an impact. people say email travels fast, but prayer travels faster. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,
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megyn: as the nation mourns those killed in the connecticut school tragedy we are learning new inspiring stories of the heros. the presence of mind that those inside and outside of the classrooms showed on friday, the selflessness, the courage, reminds us hopefully of the true nature of human beings on this earth. trace gallagher live from our los angeles bureau with some of the stories. trace. >> you make a very important point, megyn, as the nation in newtown grieve for the victims there are also people who are offering praise and prayers for the heros, and the heros are many, people who in just a few split seconds had these incredible acts of valor like the first grade teacher 27-year-old victoria soto.
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she tried as fast as she could to get her children into a bathroom and a closet. and when the gunman broke into the school the children who were not hidden she tried to shield with her body. listen. >> it brings peace to the family to know she was protecting those kids regard leafs the intimate details that took place in that classroom with the monster that came in, her instincts were to get those kids out of harm's way and that's exactly what she did, unfortunately she lost her life doing that. >> her family went onto say she did not call them her students, she called them her kids and she clearly meant it. there is 52-year-old annmarie murphy a special education teacher who also died using her body to block bullets aimed at her students. she was found covering a child who died. listen. >> she is a hero. and that gives us something to hold onto. i think that's what i'm holding onto right now is that she is a
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hero. >> annmarie murphy was a wife and mother of four. when music teacher rosa kristopeck heard gunfire she locked all of her students in ha storage closet. musical instruments blocked one door and she held her hand tightly to the knob on the other door and she heard the shooter yell, let me in, let me in. she held on, her and her kids survived. the assistant librarian had 18 fourth graders in the library. she heard the commotion over the intercom. she rushed all of her kids to an empty classroom, they barricaded the door, they wait, they wait and they survived. police finally pulled them out. just a few stories, megyn, many, many heroes on that day, remember some 650 teachers and students got out of that school alive, and for each of them there is a reason. megyn: incredible. that principal and the school
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psychologist said by the authorities to have rushed toward the gunman, someone having the peace of mind to press the intercom system so the kids would hear, the teachers would hear that there was chaos and danger and one father i have to mention this telling the "new york post," his name is neal heflin, his name jesse louis. i was in victoria soto's classroom. she got most of the kids into the back room. seven of them were back there and six of them tried to make a run for it anyway, and jesse, his son was one of them. he was killed, and mr. heflin said i wish my kid stayed put, but that is jesse i can see him making that choice and just doing something. my boy died the way i would have died if i was in that position. she saved the lives of the other children and tied throwing herself they said over those who ran out into the classroom. incredible, trace, thank you. we have to get some other news in today. there is a lot going on in the
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world, and because it's just important, it's important not to spend all day every minute on this. you know, there is only so much the human spirit can take. we'll get a few other segments in today including this one and that is the official state department review on the circumstances surrounding that september 11th terrorist attack on our consulate in benge, libya. it's been completed and it has been delivered to secretary clinton. you remember she was saying in the early days, we are going to wait for the review, well it's done. mrs. clinton will not be presenting this review to congress as she was planning to do during the hearings this week. they say it's on doctors orders, because she suffered a concussion at some point last week after fainting. she had reportedly had the flu. house foreign affairs chairwoman has made it clear she still very much wants secretary clinton to testify at some point, she expects her to show up and do so and a pentagon spokesperson today saying that secretary clinton is willing to work with
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the committees on that. what does that mean and where does it stand. monica crowley is a syndicated talk show host and a fox news contributor. we appreciate you being here. >> of course,. megyn: to develop into politics seems like an escape from this whole story right now. what is really going on? sthao*e she fainted some time last week and can't show up this thursday for a previously scheduled testimony? there was speculation i want viewers to know about whether she'd really show up and do it. >> even before the fall and the concussion. megyn: i'm not suggesting she didn't get a concussion. there is a question about do we believe this is an susan will she show up to testify. >> the reason we are asking the questions about this virus with impeccable timing is from the very beginning, from september 11th the day of the attack in benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four american citizens that we haven't been able to get a straight story or frankly anybody from this administration on the record with a clear explanation not just for the four families but for the american people.
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megyn: she is going to send some lieutenants. it's not like all testimony has been withdrawn and we are not going to get somebody knowledgeable we presume before capitol hill but it's not the secretary of state. and she said the buck stops with me. so these lawmakers want to hear from her, including senator ker raoefplt he is the one who reportedly said to her don't come, you don't feel well but he wants to hear from her as well over on the senate side. >> and she can still be called. even after she stepped down presumably and senator kerry takes her position she can still be called before the congress and she likely still l. but the problem is that this kind -- here we are almost three months after the september 11th attacks in benghazi. we are still awaiting answers. we still can't get a straight story from this administration, and those who are in the upper levels of authority here, who oversaw this or at least have responsibility for it, including the secretary of state, none of of them have put themselves in a position before congress, before the media, before the american people to answer for this. it's what i think draws a lot of the frustration on capitol hill
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and i think in the public. megyn: how does it work for her if just her top lieutenants testify and she never does? this congress is ending at the end of this year, we'll start a new one, and she can we are told be called before the new congress and may even though she'll be out of a job because she is leaving her position as secretary of state. we saw that with what's his name, general. >> petraeus. megyn: he left his post and went become to testify. how likely is it that she will and how much if any does this have to do with hillary 2016. >> i think a lot of this. so much of this happened on her watch. there are a lot of things presumably in this report, this inspector's review report coming out today that will be transferred over to congress, maybe even members of congress have it now to look at, that will contain some mighty embarrassing things for her and for her death. understandable she doesn't want to have to answer for it. but she is in the position of authority where the buck really does stop. there are some points that maybe she ends up looking vindicated
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or actually looking okay in all of this. remember, in the months leading up to the september 11th attacks, megyn, she and her department, the state department actually requested on multiple occasions additional security for benghazi. they were turned down. who turned her down? who turned down the state department to give ambassador stevens and those other americans added security? was it the white house? well there may be a whole array of things that she might not want to address. again that is understandable but she is the one ultimately responsible and she does have to answer for this at some point. megyn: the republicans still control the house, and will in january as well. it's been a bipartisan push in the senate to get answers on that. even though the democrats control that chamber they wanted answers from secretary clinton now and presumably will want them after the new year. any chance you think that she doesn't wind up speaking to either body? >> i don't think so. i think she can't avoid this for much longer. i think all of this is sort of, the delay in the report until today, right before the
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christmas holidays. then she has a stomach virus and a concussion and now it's delayed even further. i think part of the strategy if there is a strategy here is to run out the political clock so maybe the american people lose interest in this which th*e should not, we have four dead americans here and we need answers about that. leading into a new administration, president obama's second term, a whole new cast of characters. you mentioned senator kerry who is going to succeed her in this job. it's probably in his interests to kind of sweep this aside so he can begin his tenure anew. all of this understandable from a political standpoint, but remember again we have four dead americans, families need answers, the american people need answers, and in terms of our national security we need to know what went down and why. megyn: we have other ambassadors out there that we need to worry about and make sure they are safe as well. monica crowley always a pleasure. >> thanks. megyn: there were a number of angry confrontations after the right-to-work vote in michigan. now we are hearing how one union
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leader issued a controversial challenge to the michigan governor that some are saying was way over the line. lou dobbs joins us on that in three minutes. this was the hole my waist was on. but since i've been on alli, am i on this one? nope. am i on this one? no, no, no, no, no. i am on this one. [ male announcer ] for every 2 pounds you lose through diet and exercise alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. simple. effective. belt-friendly. let's fight fat with alli. have a healthier holiday at letsfightholidayfat.com.
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megyn: protesters in michigan making it clear despite the state's new right-to-work law the labor conversation is far from over. activists reverend charles williams ii, speaking at a pro-union rally last week sent a very clear message to governor rick snyder. listen. >> just no one thing, rick snyder. [bleep], you sign that bill, you will get no rest!. [cheering] we going to meet you on getts road. we'll be at your daughter's soccer game. we'll visit you at your
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church. we'll be at your office. megyn: joining us knew, now, lou dobbs, host of lou tons tonight, fox business network. get at thises road, that is the address of his family? >> i'm not sure of that. megyn: we'll be at your daughter's soccer game. we'll visit you at your church, we'll be at your office, all if you sign the bill saying you will get no rest. he did sign the bill. >> we should point out the governor daughter's doesn't play soccer. enterprising reporter found that out. megyn: right. >> this kind of language, this kind of thuggery on the part of an activist, whether union activist, describe him as or pastor, this is kind of language against a backdrop of violence we have witnessed over the course of the last several weeks. it is absolutely inappropriate. and the unions are beginning to act, absolutely
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irresponsibly here. there is no one, including the president himself who is the beneficiary of much of their efforts, saying, please, enough with this language. enough with these silly actions. behave like men and women who are adults. megyn: can i ask you something, lou? >> sure. megyn: this comment happened before, i'm told it happened before friday. >> last week, yes. megyn: the massacre in newtown. >> followed the right to work protest. megyn: does that have any role? does the nation have any tolerance for this type of talk? we are upset with you and we'll show up at your child's soccer game? >> i think there is too much, if you will, transferns on the part of the media. i don't think it is fair to suggest in any way the pastor is responsible for the debt of 26 innocent people. megyn: no. i'm saying is that a game-changer in terms of talk in the country and rhetoric? >> i don't think so. i don't think so. i think we have fear more
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restraint of speech than continued expression. is that kind of speech appropriate, instant, isolated from the violence, that is the issue. to suggest these activists these thugs are going to go and watch a governor's daughters sports activities? megyn: be at your church. at your kid's events. >> the republicans don't have countervailing influence on that. in point of fact on the street. they don't have an organization that can act with absolute impunity, speak in ugliest of terms, with which to counteract that kind of nonsense. so the republicans are going to have to figure out a response to it because the president is not leading. the president is campaigning. and so long as that is the case, the republicans are going to be utterly defenseless and all they have on their side is the ability to, to basically condemn that kind of activity. megyn: what do you make of that? i don't know. one thing is, there is one
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thing making your point forcefully. you can't shut down all passionate speech in this country. >> you don't have to. megyn: specifically speaking we'll be at your child's event. we'll be at your church. that is thernor's ann arbor residence, that getties road. should we as news organizations talking about this? otherwise is goes totally ignored and there is no accountability. what are your thoughts on that? >> my thoughts are we better be talking about. thank god for fox news and otherwise, no one would be talking about these issues except from the left's perspective. that would be a great shame. megyn: lou dobbs, thank you. coming up we expect another news conference. don't go away. i've gotine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. flavor boost, meet beef. it's swanson flavor boost.
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♪ . megyn: well the white house made some additional remarks on gun control moments ago
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in the aftermath of the newtown shooting. we hope to have those remarks in a moment. we have been monitoring that press ser. but to give you a sense of the mood in connecticut, earlier today police in the city of ridgefield ordered schools on lockdown because of unspecified, quote, incident. they gave the green light to be open with a police presence remaining in each place at school. ridgefield is 20 miles away from newtown. a lot of folks on edge today. roughly 5:00 p.m. this evening two nasa spaceships will crash head long into the moon, on purpose. trace gallagher explains why. trace? >> reporter:, well the fireworks, megyn because they both ran out of gas, right? that's why they have to be crashed. these two orbiters, twin orbiters will hit impact about 5:28 east coast time tonight. they will continue mapping the moon. they're going out with a
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fight, mapping the moon until the moment of impact. that will happen about 30 seconds apart and they will crash at an estimated 3700 miles per hour. these orbiters by the way were launched back in september of 2011. they spent more than a year going around and mapping the moon's craters and gravity force field, checking out the moon's density which is fascinating the crust is less dense than we thought which is big support to the theory, billions of years ago the moon was created because the earth and a planet about the size of mars actually collided, creating that moon and eb will crash first followed by flo. there will not be live pictures because nasa says it is going into an area of the moon kind of shaded in the shadows. if they could only find a gas station up there, megyn. they would be fine. they're in perfect shape. they could keep flying around. there is out of fuel and no way to refuel them.
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right. megyn: too bad. they doesn't foresee any damage to us in this planned crash? >> reporter: no. they're hitting the north pole. the reason they're doing that because they want the things as far away from the previous space junk, the stuff we left up there prior. they don't want these confused with any type of moon landing or any of that nonsense. other side of the planet. megyn: trace, thanks. >> reporter: okay. megyn: coming up in the aftermath of the newtown nancy lanza's friends are telling the world about challenges she had with adam. there is some question what his mental order, defect, if any really was. we'll speak with some mental health professionals about that issue coming up. mell of a good time. this is the juniper! oh that is magical. [ male announcer ] when you combine creamy velveeta with zesty rotel tomatoes and green chiles, you'll get a bowl of queso that makes even this get-togeth better.
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megyn: this is a fox news alert. new reaction from the white house this hour to the tragic mass shooting in newtown, connecticut. brand new hour here of "america live", welcome, everyone. i'm megyn kelly. we have new video from the growing memorials in
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newtown. the first funeral services were scheduled to start about an hour ago. two 6-year-old boys laid to rest after a crime the president says reminds just how precious and fragile, look at those faces a parent's relationship with their child can be. >> there is only one thing we can be sure of. and that is the love that we have. for our children, for our families, for each other. the warmth of a small child's embrace. that is true. the memories we have of them, the joy that they bring, the wonder we see through their eyes. that fierce and boundless love we feel for them. a love that takes us out of ourselves and bind us to something larger. we know that's what matters.
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we know we're always doing right when we're taking care of them. when we're teaching them well. when we're showing acts of kindness. we don't go wrong with they do that. megyn: every parent can relate to those words. i mean every parent held their child a little tighter this weekend. and was reminded to just treasury the love you have for your babies, right? chief correspondent ed henry is live at the white house with more. and there was a question, no one questioned certainly anything the president said along those lines, ed. he went on to talk about what needs to happen in the country and he didn't get specific. clearly something needs to happen. >> reporter: no doubt about it, megyn. i was there with the president last night, speaking to people in the community. some of them told me that
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they walked for about one hour in a very cold rain there in newtown because all the parking around that high school was all filled up. the auditorium, full. people were that committed to turning out and trying to do two things. trying to grieve and mourn and help heal the people who have been so hurt in that community but secondly they were wondering what's next here. and you're right, the president did in general refer to the idea it was sort of a call to action in the middle of that speech last night. it was basically, like, we have not done enough to protect our children. he was hinting at gun control, other measures potentially, but as you say he didn't get specific. a fw moments ago jay carney in the briefing got a lot of questions about this. reporters pressing about what action the president will actually take. he was pretty vague about details. take a listen. >> it's a complex problem that will require a complex
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solution. no single piece of legislation, no single action will fully address the problem. >> reporter: jay carney did say specifically that the president still supports something that he had said, he supported going back to the 2008 press 2008 presidential campaign renewing the ban on assault weapons which expired. president spoke out previously what he called weapons of war off the streets. that is one specific. but then pressed for more details how quickly the president will act, he really didn't want too get into that. that will be the question moving forward, how much people are talking, what kind of action will happen. megyn? megyn: ed henry, thank you. we want to go to the white house to the u.s. senate where there is moment of silence for the victims of newtown. [moment of silence]
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>> mr. president? >> majority leader. >> remarks the senate will be in morning business. megyn: senate majority leader harry reid speaking. this is one of those moments. it is like, what the country felt after 9/11 where regardless of your politics you feel first an american, you feel first a parent, and you think, it doesn't matter what your party affiliation is. we have to work together to be honest about what led to this. and how to stop it from happening again. without any quick fixes, without any quick judgments to really look at it, try to figure it out. you can see some bipartisan
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sharing in the heartbreak there on capitol hill moments ago. amid the tragedy in newtown there are amazing stories of heroism. have been so moving, just renew your belief in the human spirit, don't they? we have to hold onto that. this country, being an american, being a human being on this earth is not identifying with adam lanza. it is about identifying with victoria soto and that beautiful principal and all the others in that school that did so of much to save lives, and to protect children. that's what we do. yet we're learning more about this case and this investigation. and trace gallagher joins us live with more. trace? >> reporter: there are some heroes throughout this, megyn, you never get a chance to talk about. you mentioned the principal. her name is dawn hochsprung. on 9:40 in the morning we are learning she came out of
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the meeting. she stepped into the hall. she saw the gunman. she turned around and her colleagues to lock the door and they did. psychologist, 56-year-old mary sherlach and went directly toward the gunman and lunged at him. they were apparently the first two shot and killed. listen now to the principal's cousin. >> when i learned she actually tried to take the gunman down, it was no surprise to me at all. my only hope the gunman had a little bit of fear knowing this 5'2" inch "raging bull" is coming at i am and he had a little bit of fear in his eyes knowing someone like dune was coming after him because he was trying to hurt her students. >> reporter: everybody who knew the principal said she was in fact 10 nash schuss. 40-year-old teacher natalie hammond was in the meeting. when the principal ran toward the gunman, she used
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her body to block the entrance to the office. she is shot and wounded and will likely survive and likely made sure others also survived. there is the teacher caitlin roy. she barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom. pulled a bookshelf across the door. she told the students there were bad guys outside and they had to wait for the good guys to get there. her classroom would have been the first one adam lanza reached and yet for many some reason he walked right by it, passed it by. nobody knows why. more than 650 students as we said and teachers got out of there. you look at this women's face and you look at other's in there and there are reasons so much survived and he had so many rounds of weapon, of ammunition left still left in those guns. megyn: those teachers saved lives that day. that seems absolutely clear. the teachers and administrators did save lives. god bless the first-responders who believe he killed himself when they
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were coming in. he was fully prepared to unleash more carnage and they got there so quickly. unfortunately not quickly enough. trace, thanks. the tragedy in newtown not only leaving its mark on the residents there but as i mentioned on the first-responders who arrived just moments after the shooting. coming up how they're dealing with the tragedy three days later. as we learn more about the shooter, we about the challenges that his mother faced raising a son described as distant and socially awkward and reports that his struggle, his mental struggle, whatever was affecting him, seemed to have been getting worse in, in the years, the last couple of years. and a friend of the mother is speaking about the struggle that united this man and nancy lanza. >> nancy would get upset because her son refused to let her touch him.
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she couldn't hug him. where my son is just the opposite. she would see my son hanging all over me but, you know, autistic kids, each and everyone of them is different questions? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. hi victor! mom? i know you got to go in a minute but this is a real quick me, that's perfect for two! campbell's chunky beef with country vegetables, poured over rice! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right.
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you can stay in and share something... or you can get out there and actually share something. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is on. this is the pursuit of perfection. megyn: we are learning more today about one of the victims in tragedy in particular. the parents of 6-year-old jessica rekos sat down with an interview earlier today with abc news. remembering the little girl they loved so much. few of the parents have spoken out. this is the second set that have gone out on camera. and the pain they felt in learning that the light of their lives was taken by a gunman in friday's massacre. i want to warn you this is very emotional but very powerful and jessica's parents want the world to hear their story. >> she was a ball of fire. she ruled the roost.
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>> a little ceo we called her. she was, she was the boss. >> i got to the firehouse. >> we had no idea at that point, we thought, okay, the reports are one or two people may have been injured. >> walked down to the firehouse. maybe she is in there. maybe she is there. >> i must have done 100 laps. >> i knew exactly what she was wearing. would see the little ponytail come around the corner and her jacket and black getterry -- glitery gloves. finally 1:15, asked everybody to sit down and they said that it was a tragic day in newtown today and 20 children were killed. and, please don't tell me my little girl was gone. >> there was so much pain and confusion when the announcement was made of the, the life was sucked out of everyone in the room. and you know, at this point i found a state trooper, are
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there any survives? are you telling me standing here as a parent my child is gone? and he said yes. >> she just got -- [inaudible] and, still not real, that my little girl who was so full of life and who want as horse so badly and who is going to get cowgirl boots for christmas isn't come home. megyn: and that's what you would do, isn't it. you get into this child's bed and you remember all the things you loved about them. abc news did a great job with the interview. we appreciate the, them letting us run that clip and, but the emotion that you feel when you watch that story and you feel that story and you feel all the stories that we've all been going through the past 72 hours relate directly to what we'll talk to our next guest about.
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dr. mark siegel is here. he is part of our medical a-team here at fox news. and there's something in us that makes us need to hear those stories, right? it is terrible and hard. i'm tearing up listening to it. i'm sure a lot of viewers are too. you want people to know, we can't do too much of that. it is still very early but we can't do too much of that. why? >> megyn, we have deep emotional centers in our brain that we get from our animal forebearers and we have to watch what emotions go through that. inevitably if we watch tv we'll get certain emotions. we heard trace gallagher give the amazing report about the courage of the principal and teacher. that gives us courage. we hear about the parent that lost a child. you and i are sitting here that we have young children and most important thing in our lives. we don't need fear. we need empathy. we need to care for her and passion for her. that's what we need to teach our children, we need courage, empathy, not fear.
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statistically chances of it happening, thank god to one of our children is extremely low even still. megyn: that is the thing you have to remember, even in the wake of this, the odds of this happening it you and your family are inif i test mall. >> i give you statistics. homicides to school-age children only occur around schools less than one percent of the time. here is another thing. elizabeth fellsps from nyu, measured the brain, if you're watching someone hurt like this you have the same reaction if it was happening to you. that is why we have to limit the amount of contact our children have with these images. megyn: and that we have with these images potentially. if you as the dad or i as the mom come home with all of this on us, i mean, you know, kids are perceptive. they feel it. they, say sort of like, mom's in a bad mood, everybody is in a bad mood. you have to watch that. >> so true. if we worry, they worry.
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if we're calm, they're calm. if we come home talking about that principal, they're going to understand courage, you know. we of course have to feel the for the victims. then there is the issue of survives. there will be a very high incidence of post-tramatic stress disorder. megyn: what about that? they will have post-tramatic stress. will the nation have post-tramatic stress. >> we have more control. those children will have it. they will feel sad. they will feel angry. they won't feel themselves for a long time. survivors of columbine bind are never themselves. they have flashbacks. the nation can control what we have it is not our children. we can feel compassion and caring and it is not our children. as long as it is not we can limit the amount of post-traumatic stress we have. there is phenomenon called vicarious traumatic stress disorder. we can get it from watching too much of this. megyn: how important is it in the wake of something
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like this for people to remember, here we are in the christmas season, hand call as well, the influx of positive energy, positive stories of things that just make you feel good. christmas season. we watched "white christmas" over the weekend. something light that makes you smile, feel good. how important is that right now? >> huge. the caring come out of this already, pastor and rabbi the way they're bringing people together. the love and outpouring and care from the u.s.. the president of the united states's reaction to this, all of the reactions on a positive note of compassion and caring coming into the christmas season, the hanukkah season that's what we need. megyn: you can't skip past the grief. you can't do that nothing will change. we won't take a close look how this happened. then you have to move on from it. >> well, megyn, i want to say, this is a series of terrible personal tragedies. it is not a national tragedy. it is a personal tragedy. >> i don't know about that, doc. i don't know about that. >> it is a national tragedy
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in the sense we're mourning for them. megyn: in a sense seems like the world got a little darker on friday. i know what you're saying it didn't happen to us. we didn't lose children, thank god. the fact that there is, i don't know even if i know i want to say evil. i don't know whether this young man was evil or so disturbed that he did an evil thing and went to an evil place. that is for the psychiatrists to figure out. but i mean, it just seems like we lost a hail bit of ourselves somehow on friday. a red line was crossed as dr. ablow said we didn't think could be crossed. >> megyn, in terms of mental health for a second, there are many, many people out there with this kind of psychiatric disturbance. we don't have a lot of facts. physician french yaw, delusional system, whatever he had was pretty bad mental illness there are plenty of people out there with these conditions not committing crimes. megyn: most of them. we'll talk more about that in a little bit. dr. siegel thanks for being
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here. >> thank you. megyn: at this time of year, we love to watch christmas in connecticut. have you seen that christmas movie? seems like you need something, some soothing balm to take your mind off it and remind yourselves things you do this time of year to make you and your family feel great. in the aftermath of newtown, nancy lanza, that was the mother, she is telling the world about the challenges with her son adam, who was described as socially awkward and troubled. he also had some type of autism. we have a ex-period of time not just on autism and mental illness which autism is not and we talk about where we go from here in terms of diagnoses that can protect us all.
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washington because president obama is expected to announce his new foreign
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policy team soon and there is growing speculation that president obama will tab a former republican senator to be his next secretary of defense, senator chuck hagel. even before that happens there is growing anger from some jewish groups is mr. hagel's past hostility towards israel and its interests. john bolton, former you know ambassador to the united nations and ambassador get to have you here. former mayor of new york ed koch spoke out in particular and talked about chuck hagel's perceived hostility toward israel and saying it would be a terrible appointment and apparently most of the jewish leaders who have expressed themselves. why? >> i think they have looked at a number of votes that senator hagel took during his time in the senate and they're very worried what his position on israel, terrorism in the middle east. dealing with iran would be. let me say, i would sternly don't bear senator hagel any ill will personally. he supported both of my
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nominations in the bush administration. he gave me a lot of good advice and helped out behind the scenes. so i'm certainly personally grateful to him for all of that and what is interesting this controversy appears to be starting primarily among democrats. jewish democrats, who are worried about this potential nomination. megyn: what specifically has chuck hagel done? he is a republican in the senate for 12 years. he was a more moderate republican, that real staunch conservatives never much liked him because he didn't sort of vote along the party line but what specifically on israel has he said or done that hasd about? >> as i say he voted along party lines that i'm certainly grateful for. megyn: i see your standard. this is good to know about you. we have to check the record to see if the lawmakers voted for you. >> just wanted to get that out there. in 2007, the hardest vote i think to explain is that he declined to vote the iranian
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revolutionary guards corps as a foreign terrorist organization. that was the very time the irgc was arming and equiping shiite terrorists in iraq who were attacking american and other coalition forces when irgc people were training and arming and financing hezbollah in lebanon, and the list goes on and on. so i think this is, people are going to have a lot of questions about what that means for the entire obama administration policy. and i think, the fact that so much of this opposition, these questions, that are being raised, come from strong democratic party supporters may well throw a wrench into the white house plans to have a package announcement of the new national security team in the next few days. megyn: could this be, could this be a deal breaker? could he actually not get the necessary support? >> well, i think it's too early to say that. although, i'm very surprised
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at the level of, of opposition already being voiced. and a lot depends how republicans including senator mccain, decide they're going to go. you know, he and senator hagel were both vietnam veterans. they were close in the senate. and yet, senator hagel endorsed president obama in 2008. he did not endorse senator mccain. i don't, believe me, i don't think senator mccain would react out of personal pique. i don't think that drove his concern about susan rice and i don't think it would drive the position on chuck hagel. a lot of republicans look to senator mccain, if the nomination occurs, we're in the phase talking about nominations that haven't occurred again, but if it were to occur i think senator mccain's position could be pivotal. megyn: quickly before i let you go i didn't hear your reaction to susan rice officially out as possible next secretary of state? >> it is a great personal
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disappointment for her and when you go into meetings with senators and come out with them having more questions than when you went in it's a real problem in a confirmation process. i think the president decided it wasn't worth the political cost to him. he has 55 democrats in the senate. if he had really wanted to push it through i think he would have succeeded. so the calculus was the president's to make it wasn't politically worth it. megyn: that is widely believed senator kerry will assend to that position. ambassador bolton, thanks for being here. >> thank you. megyn: in the aftermath of the tragedy at newtown's friends of the gunman's mother are telling the world about the challenges she faced with her son. up next that powerful interview along with a panel of parents and doctors in one of the most important conversations of the day. >> you said that there were different things that she tried to do because she had hard time bonding with him? >> yeah. she was trying to bond, find ways to bond with him and you know, she told me the guns, you know, she would
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take them shooting because that was a way that, you know a single mom could, you know, relate to her son. and, so she would take him, take him out shooting ♪ ♪ ♪
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megyn: well, in the aftermath of the tragedy at newtown, friends of the gunman's mother, nancy lanza, are telling the world about the challenges she says
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she faced raising her son, and one is opening up about the common pond that brought this man -- common bond that brought this man and lanza together as friends. >> reporter: and what kind of things did she tell you about her son? >> nancy would get upset because her son refused to let her touch him. you know, she couldn't hug him. where my son's just the opposite, you know she'd see my son hanging all over me. but, you know, autistic kids, each and every one of them is different. >> reporter: and you said that there were different things that she tried to do because she had a hard time bonding with him. >> yeah. she was trying to bond, find ways to bond with him, and, you know, she told me the guns, you know, she would take them shooting because that was a way that, you know, a single mom could, you know, relate to her son. and so she would take him, take him out shooting. >> reporter: and was that something that they did multiple
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times, was that something that she found was an easy way for them to bond together? or was it something that she just tried? >> i think it was relatively new. but, you know, it's something that i think he enjoyed, and so, you know, she used the opportunity to do it with him, you know? so that she could have some quality time with her son. megyn: joining me now, director of communications for the elizabeth berg center for law and advocacy. and john gilmour is the direct of the autism network. michael john carly is the executive director of the global and regional asperger's syndrome, and dr. robert malillo is the co-founder of brain balance centers which looks at all disorders on the autism spectrum and beyond. thank you all so much for being here. >> where you're welcome. megyn: appreciate it. let me start with you, rebecca. >> sure.
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megyn: there was a piece posted online, i know you haven't looked at this, but it's called i am adam lanza's mother, and it's written by a woman -- it's not, obviously, his mother, but she talks about how she has a son who terrifies her. autism spectrum, adhd, optional definal, explosive disorder. she basically says she's afraid of her son. they don't know exactly what's wrong with him, but she doesn't feel there is a place right now in society to get the right help. >> the services. megyn: the services. your thoughts. >> my thoughts are there are so many comorbid situations in some of these kids with autism -- megyn: what do you mean by that, comorbid? >> comorbid means you could have adhd, you can have oppositional defiance disorder. i could not have written that article because my son is not, does not have meltdowns and is not violent, but my son probably
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could have, well, we were able to access the right services very young, and he got those impulses under control. and what we don't know right now is enough information about what adam, what was going on, how many services. we don't even know truly what his correct diagnose know cease is. megyn: and i want to emphasize that we're talking about this at all because the brother, ryan lanza, reportedly told the police that his brother suffered from -- was on the autism spectrum, and he reportedly used the word as asperger's which is sort of considered on the autism spectrum but maybe not for much longer. in any event, so many people, doctor, something over 1.5 million have asperger's or have autism in this country. >> uh-huh. megyn: 99 percent of them commit no violent crime. should we even be talking about this? >> yes, i think we should because, one, i think we've ignored these problems for too long.
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although this is an unfortunate situation, it's bringing up a good opportunity to talk about something that i think has been ignored by this country for way too long. we've been spending so much time talking about politics and the economy, and we've forgotten about our children. we're literally seeing an epidemic of these issues right now. these are neurological problems -- megyn: these are not mental illnesseses, right? >> no. it's a neurological problem. and in many ways, you know, it can be prevented, it can be treated effectively. but most kids i don't think are getting the proper resources that they need. and i think that, you know, it's possible to conceive of that this could have been prevented. megyn: john gilmour, they said this mom, nancy, decided to home school him for some period of time because she didn't feel like she was getting the support she needed unlike rebecca. it, obviously, she was not as supported as she needed to be. that seems to be clear to us. what are your thoughts? >> well, it's actually not
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unusual for people who have children on autism spectrum to home school them. many public schools aren't really equipped to provide appropriate setting or education for children with autism. but it seems like, you know, with this case we're talking about a young man, and when they get to their 20s, there's a complete evaporation of services. megyn: right. because they've gone through the school system for all those years, and there's been support, and then suddenly it's gone. >> that's right. we talk about it in our community as the day the bus stops showing up. megyn: and what's the general consensus on that? >> well, a lot of fear and, you know, at least for some of us what we're trying to do as much as we can to sort of improve the situation. you know, one thing struck me about this, though, is that i think it kind of mischaracterizes people on the autistic spectrum -- if he was -- megyn: right. unconfirmed still. >> right.
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another unconfirmed report was that he was taking a very powerful antipsychotic drug. now, that would seem to indicate -- which is not recommended for autism or asperger's. so that would seem to indicate there's other issues going on with this young man before this happened. megyn: michael john, your thoughts on the reports of the guns being in the home. i don't want to make this a gun discussion, but the mother was a gun enthusiast which, you know, that's legal in this country, but is there heightened concern for keeping that kind of weapon in the house in your view with a child that's on the autism spectrum, or, forget that, has just had these type of mental issues in their past? >> are well, just focusing on the autism spectrum aspect of it, i would say, no, it's not necessarily going to play a role in whether or not the child is going the use those guns necessarily. folks on the spectrum such as myself, such as my son, such as
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g.r.a.s.s. members, we don't like ambiguity too much, we don't like, you know, uncertainty in life. the world is confusing enough sometimes. so rules and regulations, they're kind of like safety valves, you know? we appreciate them because then everything is clear. so, you know, usually on the spectrum you're going to see more of a preponderance for an individual obeying the law maybe a little bit too much rather than disobeying the law. megyn: doctor, what are the options for a mother like this who, you know, whatever his issue was, you know, extremely withdrawn, extremely intelligent but growing more and more troubled in recent years according to the reports, all of which remains confirmed, but we need to get this out there because already the discussion about these things is out there, what are the options for such a mother? >> yeah. there are options out there other than just throwing medication at kids which really, again, may or may not be appropriate. but it's not the long-term answer, we foe that. there are -- we know that. we have brain balance centers
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which are out there -- megyn: where you can have your child tested and get a meaningful diagnosis back? >> where we can work with the problem. it's not about labeling, because everybody is different, every child is different. they may follow the rules, but then there may be others that have no empathy, that really don't feel much in the way of pain or compassion and may be prone to anger and outburst, so there are all different types. the underlying problem is the same. there are neurological imbalances, and we can deal with these with multimodal treatments, different therapists, physical therapy, behavioral therapy, nutrition. all of that is very, very important. there's a lot of options out there. megyn: and yet outbursts, just because a child has outbursts who's on the autism spectrum doesn't mean anything about whether they're going to be violent, they can have asperger's because you took a stick of gum, and you didn't want them to take it. >> if they're trying to
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communicate something and you don't know how, it's going to be present inside a very different way, and that may be remitted as a tantrum. -- remitted as a tantrum. megyn: rebecca, the message we need to take away from this? >> i feel horrible about the situation, i think, um, the reason my son got the services he needed was because i was tenacious. my husband and i hired an attorney to make sure he got the services he needed. i know that most of the parents out there can't do that, but they can look into free advocates and just to not stop. get every single thing you can for your children to make sure that things like this never happen in the future. megyn: got to be a mother warrior or a father warrior. thank you all. we'll post more on our web site, foxnews.com.brea there so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory
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megyn: kelly's court is back in session, on the docket today, the connecticut gunman's mother, nancy, was reportedly a big gun enthusiast and had all of these weapons in her house registered
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and so on. but did she break any laws having someone in her home with some sort of mental disorder, it appears, and all of those weapons? joining me now to discuss it, lis wiehl, fox news legal analyst, and mark eiglarsh, former prosecutor and defense attorney. so this isn't a gun debate per se, but it's a debate about what a lot of folks are talking about, you know, should the laws be stricter and so on, and the question is, how strict are the laws in connecticut, and did she break any of them with these guns? >> the laws are not strict in connecticut, and even if she took -- the mother -- even if she took her son, an unlicensed gun owner, to a shooting range, there have been some reports she may have let him shoot, even if she did all of those things, megyn, that's perfectly legal under connecticut law to take someone who doesn't have a license and let them shoot at a range. megyn: mark, when i read up about this, they said that connecticut's gun laws are the
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fourth most strict in the country. >> yeah. lis is absolutely right. if we're analyzing her specific behavior, we trace first her choice to let her son shoot weapons with her, and lis is absolutely right. as long as she immediately supervised an unlicensed gun handler, she's allowed to do that. megyn: okay, but wait. before we get to that, hold on, hold on, before we get to that, she owned all the guns legally, correct? >> correct. megyn: okay. and she jumped through all the hoops she needed to. she did all that, she passed all that, she had these weapons legally. >> yes. megyn: okay. but now we're moving on to the question about whether there's any restriction on having such a gun if you have somebody in your house like this son who, whose -- we don't know exactly what he was suffering from, lis. >> well, that's the problem, we don't have a diagnosis yet. let me put it this way, if she knew that he was about to commit an act of violence, if there's something on the computerrer -- we'll never know, exaivel, what
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their conversation was, but if there was something on on the computer, if there were notes or something like that where she had cause to believe he was going to go out and shoot up that school, then there's an issue there. but just the fact the kid has some mental problems and she's got the guns legally, the most you could go for is child endangerment, her child. megyn: it looks like, obviously, the mother is deceased, so this is a hypothetical question about what the obligations are of whether or whether or parents who have children in their home with mental health issues. possession of a firearm is regulated both by federal law and that of 45 states, but it only applies to the person applying. so you can have somebody in your house then in almost all states who is, who's been diagnosed as mentally ill, who may be a schizophrenic, and you can have a gun in the house? >> yes. there's no evidence to suggest that he ever had any of those weapons in his hands without her
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supervision at a gun range, and so merely saying that somebody has mental illnesses doesn't necessarily mean that it's reasonably foreseeable that they're going to gain access to guns and then go out and do this horrific act. >> and that's, that's what we need to find out, megyn, in the ensuing days, find out what did she know and when. computers, notes -- >> it's going to be hard to do now. >> well, i know, but mark's exactly right, is it legal? yes. megyn: yeah. and it's not illegal for somebody with as asperger's to be in a home with guns. >> we can't put labels on people with mental illnesses. megyn: yeah. we'll be right back. up and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin.
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♪ megyn: well, president obama traveled to newtown,
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connecticut, on sunday in his role as comforter in chief. and that's a role he's assumed at least four times now in the wake of mass shootings. mr. obama meeting privately with the victims' families before speaking at an inner faith vigil, expressing sorrow for the 20 children whose lives were taken far too soon. here are just some of the pictures. look at them. released so far to the media. gosh, when you see them all together like that. here's president obama with the siblings of little emily parker, one of the victims. emily's father, robbie, found the strength can -- incredibly o offer words of sympathy for the gunman not long after police released the names of the victims. and here's another photo of the president with the granddaughter of sandy hook elementary school principal dawn who gave her life confronting the gunman. boy, they just said the nicest things about that principal. they said she was amazing, just exactly what you'd want for an
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elementary school principal, and they had a philosophy there of working hard and being smart and doing well. and when she got there and she added the maxim, have fun. last night president obama offered these words: >> i can only hope it helps for you to know that you're not alone in your grief, that our world, too, has been torn apart, that all across this land of ours we have wept with you, we've pulled our children tight. and you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. megyn: well, there was also an
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emotional moment just before the start of last night's vigil when the community recognized the first responders as they entered the auditorium for their heroic service in the aftermath of thiscepsless tragedy. well, we are awaiting reaction from connecticut governor dan malloy who's scheduled to address this tragedy in moments. he was there last night as well and talked about the strength of that community and all thai -- they've been through, and all of the officials last night welcoming the prayers of a nation that very much have newtown in their hearts today. we'll bring you those comments, stay tuned.
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